The problem with David Attenborough’s spectator environmentalism
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As the world marked David Attenborough’s hundredth birthday on May 8 and now observes World Environment Day on June 5, this is an apt moment to reflect on the environmental imagination the globally-renowned presenter of television programmes on natural history helped to create.
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More than any scientist or statesman, Attenborough has defined the modern imagination of nature. Over a 70-year-long career, he has inspired generations to feel wonder towards animals and plants, focusing on creating an emotional resonance with non-human relations through visuals, narration and pure awe.
Yet his legacy and work disseminate an environmental imagination that frames nature as distant and untouched by history, human presence and ecological conflict.
The pristine wilderness
Attenborough perfected a mode of environmental imagination that presents landscapes such as the Amazon and Serengeti as pristine wildernesses, foregrounding charismatic biodiversity and ecological drama visible to only a tiny fraction of humanity.
This is spectator environmentalism where ecological engagement is organised around mediated observation and wonder, with limited engagement on why environmental destruction occurs.
There are three problems with this approach.
First, Attenborough’s documentaries foreground non-human life, with human actors either absent or only selectively included to emphasise environmental impact. The effect of this narrative is subliminal. Given that humans evolved with nature and depend on it, showcasing nature by...